Top golfers say just one season away from claiming Tiger’s `lair’

London, May 20 (ANI): A clutch of golfers have said they are just one season away from claiming Tiger Wood’s number one ranking.

The latest is Ian Poulter, who has talked about the possibility of challenging Tiger Woods at the top of the rankings.

When announcing yesterday that he could become world No 1 this summer, Poulter affected only the odd raised eyebrow in a roomful of agreeing nods.

This recognition was in large part down to the forlorn state of Woods at the moment and also because Poulter was not merely referring to himself.

According to The Independent, this was no rerun of the flamboyant Englishman’s famous “When I reach my full potential it will be just me and Tiger” declaration of a few years ago. This was more “just me and eight others and Tiger”.

“It’s closer at the top of the rankings than it ever was because of all the points Tiger has dropped,” the paper quoted Poulter, as saying.

“If they play great for three or four months, get a couple of wins and a couple of big finishes, I can see anybody in the top 10 getting to the points that Tiger is at now - including myself,” he added.

Poulter was speaking on the eve of the BMW PGA Championship, an event which tees off at the West Course boasting five of the world’s top 10.

Four of them happen to hail from the United Kingdom (Ernie Els being the other).

Yet with respect to Poulter, of this quartet Lee Westwood holds the most realistic chance of usurping Woods.

On Monday the 37-year-old awoke to find himself in the career-high position of No 3 and with the tag of “world’s best” in tantalising focus.

Unlike Poulter and many other of his fellow professionals, Westwood does not include an algorithm book as a fixture in his luggage set so will not be aware of the complex calculations. Victory here in the European Tour’s flagship tournament will earn him not only 640,000 pounds but more importantly enough ranking points to bring him within a top-two finish at next month’s US Open of the No 1 spot.

Listening to Westwood yesterday it was clear he does not believe that anyone right now can depend on the form of Woods or even of Phil Mickelson.”Tiger’s performance and schedule are unpredictable at the moment, aren’t they?” said the man who has finished third, third, second in the last three majors.

“We have all seen that the last few weeks. Phil is obviously world class and already has a major this year, but his performances are very much up and down as well. And the world rankings are all about consistency. So, I suppose yeah, No 1 and No 2 are more achievable than they have been in the last few years.” (ANI)